Karen Constantine, Labour Party County Councillor for Ramsgate
KCC Campaign
May the 4th be with you! The County elections will soon be upon us. Just six months to go! Whilst we can’t start door knocking yet, we could begin to give thought to commissioning a candidates’ introductory letter/leaflet and getting that delivered. We have 7 wards and 40,000 doors to knock on so will need to get cracking. It will be a good time building a winning team! (Hopefully).
The Party are urging us to switch as many voters as possible to early postal vote. We should work hard and aim to get as many Labour voters as possible registered. We need to outline the offer of postal votes regularly from now until the postal vote sign up deadline and across all platforms to maximise this advantage. We are being asked to incorporate the early vote sign up into your print. We can also use the Connect sign up micro site to streamline the process.
Opinion piece on live animal exports
I have a regular column in The Isle of Thanet News. This recent story is about the potential continuation of live animal exports from Ramsgate post Brexit. Read the article here.
NHS Campaign
We are still awaiting leave to appeal against the Stroke Unit decision. With KCC elections in mind, we need to mount a campaign to alert the general public to the fact that plans are now rapidly unfolding for a further reorganisation of services. Whilst some reorganisation may be clinically sound, we know much of what is driving this is budget cuts, targets to find savings, and also clearly due to the rationing of staff.
So we must:
- Oppose the NHS cuts.
- Object to ‘reorganisation without stabilisation’.
- Insist on robust community consultation. Nothing about us without us must apply!
- Say ‘No to backdoor privatisation’.
- Call for better pay and T&Cs for staff
- Seek a return to GP appointments and elective surgery.
- Insist on the integration of social care with health treatment.
- Insist on improved mental services.
- Maintain a well funded public health department.
- Say no to the potential closure of any Thanet services including A&E and Maternity.
- Call for a Public Inquiry into EKHFT maternity failings.
- Ask for targets to be set to improve life expectancy.
Cuts to KCC budgets loom.
As we increasingly lurch towards a budget crisis, and a Brexit crisis, the Labour group at KCC will aim to put in an alternative budget. Estimates of between £40 – £160 million shortfall are being anticipated. We’ll be fighting hard to maintain front line services. We’ll be working with the unions. I’ve proposed a focus on maximising our local spend within Kent to support local businesses and communities as much as possible.
National Policy Forum Update
I’ve now served four years on Labour’s National Policy Forum, sitting on Economy Business and Trade committee. The latest report is now out. Given the scale of the impact of Covid and jobs and communities, this really is a ray of light for us all. These plans are the means by which our Coastal communities will once again prosper! Wonderful places like Ramsgate (and the whole of Thanet), won’t be left behind anymore.
If the UK embraces the transformative potential of a Green Industrial Revolution, we can rebuild our industries to create a more prosperous economy, a fairer society, and tackle the climate crisis. We owe it to ourselves.
Labour’s Green Economic Recovery
Port of Ramsgate
It took a great deal of persistence to get KCC to admit that there was no Environmental Impact Assessment at the Port of Ramsgate. I have written a piece on the process and about the length of time that the port saga has been rumbling on. You can read it here.
Additionally, I am still voicing the concerns of Ramsgate residents in the local press.
This story was published in The Isle Of Thanet News on November 5.
BBC Politics South East
In late October I was invited to appear on the BBC’s Sunday morning political discussion programme. You can read about the issues covered here. A recording of my contributions is below.
You can read my article penned as we headed into the second lockdown, published in The Isle of Thanet News here.
Councillor’s report Autumn 2020
If you missed my previous report on my activities as the Labour Party County Councillor for Ramsgate, read it here.